


Join Me

by vvader



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Comedy, F/M, Gen, this is not a guide on how to pronounce the US states
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21632710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vvader/pseuds/vvader
Summary: Rey was minding her own business until she wasn’t. She just needed an answer but got a possible friendship instead.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Join Me

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my first ever fanfic. This oneshot is inspired by true events. I would like to thank and dedicate this to my beta, who is not a reylo but reads reylo fanfic (one day you will turn). 
> 
> One thing to note, there are numbers representing the majors and courses referenced in this fic. They are explained as the fic moves along. Yes, they are modeled after a certain school. 
> 
> Anyway, let’s get on with it!

Rey was minding her own business. Well as much as she could. The rice she was eating was too hard, and for someone who loves food, even she decided it was not worth it to continue eating.

She glanced around to see if anyone else could eat this monstrosity. A quick scan concluded that her fellow students seemed to accept that this was the best the dining hall could offer.

Uninterested in finishing the rest of her rice, Rey continued to look at the plates surrounding her. She was still very hungry and intended to fill her stomach with whatever she deemed was better than the rice. As she looked around, she felt a pang at her heart for not finishing the food on her plate. She knew better than anyone how precious food is and how heartless it is to waste it. But, Rey surmised, she needed her nutrients, and this rice was just not giving them to her.

The donuts one student carried to their table looked tempting, but Rey knew better than to try one of the rock-hard pastries of the dining hall. She once had tried the brownies but was unable to chew them. It had really put a strain on her love for the dessert.

As her eyes resumed scanning the dining hall, they halted at a familiar sight. Her somewhat friend Poe was sitting with two other boys. One of them was Armitage Hux, who is in her writing class. Truly a snob, she thought. She had tried talking to him in class, but he dismissed her faster than she could say the word “hi!” She did not pay much attention to the other guy sitting with them, thinking back about her other interactions with Poe.

She had met Poe in a science summer camp a summer ago before they had attended college. The Poe she had met was quiet and reserved until one day she saw his passion for learning. Poe was like a sponge, like all of them were, except he was more absorbent. He wanted to soak up all the knowledge he could get. Fortunately, he had come to the right place. Unfortunately, this meant the man went crazy about asking questions during class. Although Rey was impressed by his questions, she was irritated at how he was keeping all the TAs entertained while she also needed help. Nevertheless, she forgave him at the end, seeing that he naturally sought attention by yelling due to his lack of friends.

Although Poe still gets a little excited about his questions, yelling them in the middle of a hallway, where for some reason she was also conveniently there to answer them, he was a pretty cool guy. One time he invited her to watch a movie about the science fair with him.

Rey wondered whether she should get up and say hi to him. She was never good at initiating conversation, always hating when they died a few seconds later after she started them. She looked at her food and decided she was going to talk to him. Her food was basically done anyway, and she had nothing better to do for another hour before her classes.

She stood up and started to slowly walk over to their table. She knew she didn’t have a lot of time to delay since his table was across the aisle, but Rey was afraid she was going to make a fool of herself. She already talked to a very limited amount of people anyway, scaring away people who she even talked once to would increase her chances of being lonely again.

By the time she approached the table, she had already rehearsed what she was going to say. Poe’s head was turned back to her when she blurted, “I have a question for you!”

Oh no, she thought, too blunt.

All three boys stopped their conversation and looked at her. Poe replied, “Sure,” while Hux barked out, “Rey!”

Rey blinked. She never thought Hux would know her name. She turned to face him.

“Did Maz ever give you back your graded essay?”

Rey, comfortable to where the flow of the conversation was going, answered, “No, not yet. You?”

Hux grimaced. “No, she has not. Seriously the amount of time she is taking is horrendous. How long does it take to grade a few measly papers?”

Rey, not knowing how to answer, shrugged. She turned to Poe and questioned, “What state are you from?”

“Oregon.”

“Oh, thanks.”

An awkward pause followed. This is where the conversation awkwardly ended, she thought. Rey cleared her throat. “That was my question.”

“Oh.” Poe clearly looked disappointed. Eager to continue the conversation, he said, “You look familiar. But I don’t know where I’ve seen you? Where have I seen you?”

Rey felt all life leave her body. This guy did not even remember who she is? Anger filled her body.

“We met a science camp a year ago in the summer? Do you not remember?”

“Clearly, he doesn’t,” Hux snickered.

“Wait, we did?!” Poe interjected.

“Yes, we did.” Rey was aghast. “I sat next to you! You always yelled in class and hogged all the TAs. You were unforgettable by everyone. You once told me when I complained about you hogging the TAs that you were getting all the knowledge you could out of the course and that we should suck it up and try doing the same!”

“Ha! If you had known, you could have had a girlfriend by now.” Their third companion at the table had finally spoken, laughing with mirth.

Anger filled her at that comment. Excuse them! She would never have a boyfriend who would yell constantly, it would get annoying. Their third companion was stupid for making that comment. She glared at him.

“Oh yeah!” Poe turned to Hux who had a questionable look on his face. “Whenever I go somewhere, I always get all the juice out of it! That’s the point of these programs, getting the juice out of it!”

Hux did not look convinced. “If you knew who he was, why did you ask him where he was from?”

Rey dreaded that question. She awkwardly started laughing. “You see, my friends and I were discussing about that.”

Hux raised an eyebrow.

“My friends and I were discussing how to say Oregon properly. We kept arguing which way was better. I decided to ask someone from Oregon to end the discourse.”

“Well, it’s Oregon.” Poe stretched out the word as if she were a child.

“Yes, well I got that now.”

“Wait, you all live in America, but you do not know how to pronounce your states?” Hux exclaimed.

Luckily, Rey did not have to explain that.

“Well, even in America, people still pronounce a lot of stuff incorrectly,” Poe started. “For example, my elementary school teacher taught us to mispronounce Arkansas.”

Rey finally knew why she had forgiven him. She was grateful that he had stood up for her, in his own weird way.

Hux was suddenly stoic. “It’s not surprising at all I guess.”

Poe was not willing to drop the conversation. “What major are you?”

“I’m 6-3.” The numbers had come to her mouth on instinct. A question she was asked often, numbers were the most natural way to answer. For some reason, their college decided that each major would correspond to a number instead of saying the entire thing. Makes sense, Rey thought, no one has enough time, might as well decrease the amount of talking to increase the amount of time to do homework.

Now Poe was the one who made the grimace. “I’m 6-2, and I’m going to tell you why 6-2 is the best out of all the 6s.”

Hux groaned in the background. Rey tried to remember what 6-2 was. Her major, 6-3, is Computer Science and Engineering. From what she can remember, 6-2 is Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Rey, for one, was never too interested in hardware, she had too many bad memories with it. Her true love was code.

“You can take easy Electrical Engineering courses and hard Computer Science courses. In 6-3, you have to take all the Computer Science courses, easy and hard. With 6-2, you are able to pick and choose which one you want.”

Rey, getting defensive about major, interjected, “What is wrong with taking all CS courses, easy or hard? It builds a solid foundation. I would rather take all CS courses than doing any Electrical Engineering courses.”

Poe shrugged and continued to yabber about why 6-2 was better.

Rey slowly lost all the details Poe was giving her and looked at their third companion at the table. The guy was silent, so much for laughing. He was eating his food while watched Poe animatedly convince her of why 6-2 was the superior major. He did not have distinct features except for the fact that he had a slight mustache growing on his upper lip, which was far more than most guys had at their age.

He interrupted, “18 is clearly the superior major.”

Poe stopped talking, and all three looked at him with their jaws dropped. They all started laughing.

“Why would 18 be a superior major at all?” Hux wheezed out.

The guy frowned. “18 is a very flexible major, and mathematics is very important to the world. It is often underestimated.”

“Sure it is. But 6-2 is the most superior of them all!”

Hux sighed. He looked at Rey and said, “I’m not even going to convince of my major. I think your major is good.”

Rey stood at shock once again that day. Had Hux just complimented her?

While Rey stood in shock, the guy continued to rant about mathematics. “I love mathematics, but it’s weird how one of the requirements, 18.03, is not math based at all.”

“How is it not? It has 18 in the course name!”

Poe’s question led Rey to come back to herself. Making a stoic face and cheering herself for being knowledgeable, Rey replied, “You see, it’s designed more as an engineering course. There is math in it, but it’s engineering math. It’s supposed to prep up the engineers to understand their engineering classes.”

The guy nodded approvingly. “This is why I ASEd out of it. It was such a useless class for me.”

Rey felt ashamed. She had not taken any advanced standing exams, thinking she would rather take the classes here. Upon hearing her fellow peers take eight or nine, she felt as though she had miscalculated when thinking about taking an ASE.

Not to lose her dignity, Rey confessed, “I was actually thinking 18 as a major. I mean, 6-3 would have always been my main major, but like a double major with it?”

Poe was in shock, “But yet not 6-2?!”

“Clearly she had her head on right until she decided not to follow through with it,” the guy commented.

“Oh no, I’m still thinking about it. We don’t need to declare a double major until junior year.”

“That’s true, you only need 8 courses to complete a math major anyway. You can still do it you know.”

Rey hummed. “I know, but I don’t know if I want to do pure math or just general math. I mean I could do general math, but what’s the point of that degree?”

“Aren’t you doing 6-3 though? Wouldn’t that be enough to get you a job? Isn’t this your fun major?” The guy ended off with his arms making awkward air quotes.

“I guess this is true.”

“That means you can also take 6-2 as a fun major too!”

“Poe, stop it. The girl is already confused as she is,” Hux scolded.

Rey thought it was odd how Hux was supporting her. Must be something in the food she thought.

“I mean you get to take fun courses when you do pure math, the thesis is especially fun since you get to conduct your research,” the guy added.

This time, it was Rey who groaned. “I really don’t want to write a thesis though. Pure math is definitely cool, but I was planning not to write any theses at all.”

“Well it’s math, you are going to do research, and you need to know how to write a research paper. There’s nothing else you can do.” The guy raised his eyebrow. “However,” the guy continued, “if you want to skip the thesis, you can always take general math instead.” He smirked.

“I think I’m good with my singular major for now. Thanks for the advice though…” Rey suddenly stopped. She had been talking to this guy the entire time, but she didn’t even know his name.

“Uh, what’s your name?”

“My name?”

“Yes, I would love to know the person I’m talking to. I already know the others.” She lamely gestured toward Hux and Poe.

“Oh. My name is Kylo.” He had light blush on his cheeks.

“Kylo?” Rey echoed.

“Uh yes, Kylo Ren is my name.”

Rey literally stared. That’s an interesting name she thought. Am I dreaming?

“That’s an interesting name you got.”

“Really? I thought it was pretty normal.”

“I guess you and I have different standards of normal them.”

They both smiled at each other.

“Well, I’m done with my food. Hux?” Poe loudly exclaimed as was customary.

“I should get going too.”

“Oh.” The gaze was broken between the two of them. “I should collect my plates as well.”

As Rey was collecting her plates, she didn’t want the conversation to end. She rushed to gather her dishes at the dish disposal.

Kylo was still there. “I don’t know if I want to definitely major in math, but I think I will try, pure that is.”

He smiled. “Well, I think it’s a great idea. The thesis will be fun. I promise.”

Smiling at each other, they walked out of the dining hall.

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! If you liked this, please let me know. I hope you guys liked it. I am happy to receive any comments on my fic. Maybe I’ll make this two-shot if I have enough motivation. If you want to get to know more about me, here's my tumblr: varksvader.tumblr.com.


End file.
